WIP: Untitled Tessellation 1 (3 images)

I’ve decided I need to take a little break from doing images with a heavily circular focus.

M.C. Escher has always been one of the artists I’ve always felt inspired by. His work with tessellations has always especially fascinated me, and are some of my favorite pieces.

So I’ve decided to try my hand at creating my own tessellation design. I started off with creating a 3″x3″ square out of an index card I had and drawing a 1/2″ grid on it with pencil. Then I would cut out shapes from one side of the square and tape it on the opposing side, eventually creating the image held in the pic of my hand.

Using that shape as a template, I drew another 1/2″ grid on a piece of 9″x12″ paper and filled it in with the seamlessly repeating pattern, which can be seen in the middle image. Originally I had intended to include a major circular focus on the image, but have since set that idea to the side.

I have finished the first round of inking, outlining the original repeating shape as well as adding a semicircle to the design.

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going from here. I have no clear clue on what the final product will look like. However, I’m definitely enjoying the process. My husband thinks I must be slightly mad to enjoy working on a design like this by hand on a 9”x12” piece of paper with Micron pens.